Saying Yes

Fourteen hours after returning to Auckland from Adelaide, I was setting up for my class in Onehunga -- three days with 17 talented quilters, exploring line and color, talking with them about their work and their lives. There was a lovely moment on the last day of class as people dug in to finish their final projects just as a chorus of voices joined in graceful harmony wafted into our room from the rehearsal next door. The colors and compositions pinned to our classroom walls became the visual part of the joyful offering. 

Because my rule for this trip was to say YES! to everything, from bike rides to dinners to local tours, the next day was scheduled to a gnat’s eye brow with social events to which I had answered Yes: an early lunch with one group of friends, late afternoon coffee with another, dinner with Yoke’s family. Before I fell into bed after the day’s whirl, I repacked for the next day’s flight, off to Blenheim on the South Island to dye and discharge fabric with a lively group of quilters from Christchurch, Marlborough, Wellington, and Whangarei. Every class offers up its surprises; this one yielded the chance to dye fabric in a huge garage/workroom (I wish my studio was as large!) while being supervised by a phalanx of hart and deer trophies that would have made any great white hunter jealous. I was beginning to feel a little spooked when I remembered the rule: YES, I said, then shot the animals myself – with my camera, of course, and got down to the business of mixing the dyes.

Marlborough sits at the northeast corner of the South Island, an area of peninsulas and islands that look from my airplane window like lace floating on the Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sounds. Blenheim is in a valley with Cook Strait out to the east and high country mountains to the north and south. The Marlborough area, once filled with cherry and apple orchards, is lined now with endless rows of vines, monoculture made visible. Wineries fill the landscape and offer great places to stop for a meal or a wine tasting, but I’m not sure where locals source their stone fruit or Galas these days.

There was time to say yes to meals with friends, a short drive over unsealed roads for a view of the Sounds, a nip over the Richmond hills to the art town of Nelson-- but not time enough to explore a fraction of the beaches, mountain roads, and galleries the area has to offer. I think I need to go back. I have my answer ready for the next time I’m asked:YES! And maybe there’ll be time for the mussel festival I missed by a day this trip, or lunch at the wonderfully adorned Mussel Pot.

Back in Auckland, I had a day to spend with Ailie, to continue our longtime search for the best gelato in Auckland (we agree that Spencer’s in Glendowie walked away with first place on this trip) and to be sous-chef for the party Ailie was throwing that evening to farewell me home.

Old and new friends, great food, engrossing conversation, delighted laughter: the evening’s abundant magic danced in my head on the long trip home. It was a short and full six weeks, reminding me of the advice someone gave me a while ago: Life is short, but it’s up to you to make it wide. Thank you to Yoke, who shared her house and family with me, to Ailie who accompanied me on the back roads and to the big city in Australia, and to all the friends who rearranged already full schedules to make time to say yes! when asked to come out to play. Till next time.